Typically, an IDF is a distribution frame in a building, stadium, or campus which cross-connects the user cable media to individual user line circuits. The IDF can serve as a distribution point for multi-pair cables from the main distribution frame (MDF) or combined distribution frame (CDF) to individual cables connected to equipment in areas remote from the MDF and CDF. IDFs can be used for telephone exchange central office, customer-premises equipment, wide area network (WAN), and local area network (LAN) environments, etc. In WAN and LAN environments, IDFs can hold devices of different types including backup systems, (hard drives or other media as self-contained, or as RAIDs, CD-ROMs, etc.), networking (switches, hubs, routers), and connections (optical, coaxial, category cables) and so on.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.